John then told me about a pastor that contacted him and ordered 150 of his books for his church. This pastor had a Dr. of Theology degree, very strong in the Word, and has pastored for over 40 years in a well-known and well-respected denomination that has preached a pre-trib rapture forever! John read from his letter:
“Dear John,
I pastor a large Baptist church in North Carolina, and as such I have been taught and have taught for many years that there would be a pre-tribulation rapture. Several weeks ago, a member of my previous congregation called and told me that I just had to read your book. As I told you on the phone, I probably would not have purchased this book at first glance at a book store. But at my friend’s insistence, I ordered it. I did my first reading per the advice of a former college professor who told us to read books like we eat fish, ‘eat the meat and spit out the bones.’ In other words, if you stop reading a book at the first place where you disagree with the author, you will probably never finish, or you will finish very few books.
After the first reading, there came a second. With pen and legal pad in hand, alas, there came a third in an effort to truly grasp the truth of the matter. My conclusion: there will be a mid-tribulation rapture. Contrary to all the learning and teaching I have received and done.”
John said that this man later preached a sermon to his whole church, sent him the DVD, and told his congregation, “I have to tell you, in good conscience, I have been wrong for 40 years!” And then he challenged his congregation to read John’s book. Well, 150 families signed up, 90 something percent of every family in his church. He later told John that not one person came back in disagreement after reading his book. He told John, “I gave your book to a dozen pastors and to the vice president of a Bible college. Every one of them came back and said, “I can’t refute the Word of God. I can’t believe we didn’t see it.”
No, we can’t refute the Word of God, and we shouldn’t resist the truth even when we’ve taught and been taught a wrong thing our entire lives! When Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Lord, what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” Jesus’ answered in Matthew 24 and told them about all this bad stuff that we’re going to go through. And then… “Immediately after the distress of those days… Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
John said that when we’re going through the opening of the seals, it will be a time of distress although it will not be the wrath of God. He believes, and I do too, that we are not appointed to wrath and the seals are not the wrath of God. But we’re going to go through a time of distress. And Jesus’ own words said, “Immediately after the distress of those days…” Part of that distress is the antichrist showing up in Jerusalem and desecrating a temple that hasn’t been built yet (Matthew 24:15).
I’ve preached ever since prison days; in Matthew 24, in verse 15, is the antichrist! “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand…”
One of the main points I’ve heard preached all my life is you’ll never see the antichrist. How many have heard that preached? We preached that you’re not going to see him because he’s coming after the rapture.
But Jesus said, here it is, in verse 29, after the pressure, or the persecution, of those days “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” There are nine verses, I believe, in the Bible that tell you before the coming of the Lord, the sun and the stars are going to be darkened. I believe an earthquake is literally going to cause volcanoes. And the Bible talks about those volcanoes when it says the sun and the stars will be darkened. How is it dark outside when the sun and stars should be lighting things up? It’s dark because of the ash cloud from the volcanoes.
John continued: “The rapture’s not happening tomorrow, I’m sorry to disappoint you. It’s written in the Word. It says, “Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,” (vs. 29) and Joel, speaking of the same day, says the sun, the moon, and the stars will be darkened. And in Revelation chapter 6, the opening of the sixth seal, ‘There was a great earthquake and the sun went dark and the moon did not give its light.’ It’s all written in the Word.
And you know what is sad? I ask so many people that email and say, ‘I’m just not buying this mid-trib rapture stuff.’ So I respond back to them and ask if they read my book, and it’s usually ‘no.’ Then I ask them, ‘Could you give me a Bible verse that in plain speak tells you that the rapture is pre-trib?’ And the answer is usually silence or no. The only way you can give me a scripture for pre-trib is if you use types, symbols, symbolic meanings; it’s not in the scriptures in plain speak.”
I believed in a Pre-Trib Rapture for many years, but now I see that it will be Mid-Trib.
In Rev. 13:5-11, “THEM THAT DWELL IN HEAVEN” are there during the rule of the Antichrist in the first half of the Tribulation, but they are not there during the rule of the False Prophet who comes to power Mid-Trib.
Rev 13:5-11 says, “And there was given unto him (i.e., Antichrist) a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months (i.e., the first half of the Tribulation). 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and THEM THAT DWELL IN HEAVEN (i.e., the wise-virgins saints). 7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints (i.e., the foolish-virgin saints that get left behind), and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 9 If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10 He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. 11 And I beheld another beast (i.e., the Satan-possessed FALSE PROPHET that comes to power Mid-Trib) coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.”
why suffer more than we have to…Jesus said “to pray always that we may escape all thes things coming on the earth and to stand in front of the son of man”–i’m an escapist in this context!!!
its a pre-GREAT tribulation rapture around the time of the abomination of desolation. right up to this moment there will be natural/secular prosperity as the antichrist counterfeits “life and that more abundantly” to gain popularity and support-deceit-you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar…..the word taken in “one will be taken and one will be left”is “brought alongside” in the original greek and its jesus talking here….. -samt-
Way back in the 70’s I heard this same teaching but people were calling Watchman Nee and Witness Lee a cult. I believed it that we would go through part odf the tribulation. Now God is making it real to more and more people and that must mean it is almost upon us.
Charles Reece, you have spoken Truth, that the Holy Spirit has revealed to me in the last 2 1/2 years. Everything! I have been a born again Christian since I was 18, am now almost 63, raised in pre-trib Assembly of God church. God had to tear down everything in my heart and mind that I had been taught in churches. It was very, very difficult, because it is all I have ever heard or known, and backed up by scriptures. But, God, by His Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of truth, opened up a whole different teaching to me. Visions, dreams, prophetic teaching, with many, many miraculous foretelling of events, which have everytime come to pass. I couldn’t begin to write down everything He has shown me. But, this I know. In the very beginning, His words daily to me were obedience, trust, and faith. As time has passed, it is awesome, and comforting, to see and learn, God is revealing His Truth, to more, who have eyes that want to see, and ears that want to hear, and a heart that seeks the face of God, above ALL things on this earth.
Pastor Jim,
Without meaning to speak condescendingly or pejoratively of “Pre-Tribulation” Christians, I humbly and respectfully express; with all due respect to Christians who believe in a so-called “Pre-Tribulation Rapture”; that THIS particular doctrine in NO WAY reflects the correct Biblical and ancient Hebraic attitude toward the “sufferings” that mankind is expected to go through in this present earthly life. The Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine is totally ALIEN or antithetical to Jewish/rabbinic teachings on the “expectation” for suffering during Man’s existence on Planet Earth. This recently-made Christian doctrine, like many others, unfortunately alienates our Jewish brethren from understanding the “Jewishness” of the Gospels, whereby the “religion” of Christianity makes itself appear “different” from Judaism; in that the Rapture doctrine gives Christianity the appearance as being an “escapist” religion; while conversely, Judaism itself – as taught in the Torah – presents a faith that, in a sense, automatically “requires” or “demands”, from God, a willingness on the part of Man to go through “sufferings” during our earthly walk with the Lord.
As sincere as Christians may be in believing in the Pre-Trib Rapture doctrine, unfortunately this same non-Jewish teaching has a way of subconsciously catering to the natural carnal materialistic desire – on the part of Western Christians – to escape sufferings that are inevitable in this life; and in a sense, this same doctrine has a way of subconsciously creating an attitude of presumption that God is “supposed to” – or obligated – to shield or protect Christians when persecutions for following Jesus do indeed come to his disciples. Therefore, how do we adequately “explain” the vicious deadly Christian persecutions that took place the days of the pagan Roman Empire; and throughout the last 2,000 years, around the world; including TODAY, such as in the anti-Christian communist and Fundamentalist-Islamic nations??
However, I believe that the real and underlying concern for this topic has much to do with the subconscious EMOTIONAL RESPONSE that this word, “rapture”, elicits particularly from “Pre-Tribulation” Christians, who of course, for decades, have unknowingly – yet automatically – carried in their own minds a natural human hope or desire to “escape” from the “unwanted” persecution that is prophesied to occur during the period of unprecedented global evil, i.e., the unparalleled time of earthly sorrow – the so-called “Great Tribulation”. Naturally, “Pre-Tribulation” Christians have a presumed “expectation” of God that He will supernaturally “deliver” or protect the “faithful” followers of Jesus from having to “go through” the inevitable and horrific period of martyrdom during the immensely diabolical reign of that wicked global ruler, commonly known (in Christian eschatology) as the “Anti-Christ”.
God’s people, from the Old Testament unto to the New Testament, have ALWAYS – in one “way” or another – had to “suffer’ some MEASURE of “pain” – or even MARTYRDOM – along with the “wicked” during the Lord’s periods of “divine judgments” that He placed upon unrepentant Israel and other rebellious nations of the world that rejected Moses, the Prophets, and Jesus Christ.
Pastor Jim, there are two “kinds” of righteous SAINTS who will exist during the Great Tribulation: Those “saints who will be “caught”, detained, and possibly TORTURED by the henchmen of the Anti-Christ, awaiting to undergo a glorious MARTYRDOM for the Lord. And then, there will be those “OTHER” saints who God will “hide” in secret places of REFUGE around the world.
The Lord Himself has already RESERVED, in store, a particular NUMBER of saints who were already DESTINED, from Eternity Past, to serve as glorious MARTYRS for the Lord’s Great Name’s sake during the upcoming “Great Tribulation”.
If we “get ready” NOW, spiritually speaking, we will be able FACE the Anti-Christ when he finally comes; being empowered by the Spirit to face DEATH if indeed “called”, by God, to do so!!
I believe just like the Jews that there are others who will not know the truth until at an appointed time. This may in fact be a blessing for some who otherwise may not accept the truth of the word before this time. I trust God for however the Holy Spirit does it that they lake it in which is more important than post, mid or pre-tribulation even though this is vital information. I thank God for the knowledge, however, that the Holy Spirit is enlightening us to grasp in these last days. Thank you John Shorey. I do believe there will be more un-folding of His precious word….let them that have ears HEAR what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the Church as our ears become more in tuned to His Word. God bless you all for the wonderful work you are doing to bring out the light of the Gospel.
Which book by john Shorey is the article above about? Regarding the mid trib rapture.
Thanks!
Denese
John Shorey discusses the mid-tribulatin rapture in both of his books: “The Window of the Lord’s Return” and “Book of Revelation.”
I have been a born again Christian, spirit filled, for 42 years. I am now 62 years old, & I was taught all these years in the charismatic church to believe in the pre-tribulation rapture. But, God began to deal with me over two years ago, but that was not a truth. Not a church, not a book, but by the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit, he also revealed to me, that it is in mid trib rapture. The Spirit of Truth teach you all things, and teachers you in truth. The sad part is, so many have been deceived, for so many years, and when the Antichrist is revealed, so many will lose their Faith. If you try to teach many Christians, that the pre trib rapture is a lue, they do not want to hear this truth. They believe their teachings are truth, and can’t begin to fathom goung through any persecution or suffering for Christ……..
Most modern western Christians do not want to go through distress and persecution and trials. They want more “happy church” days. They don;t want to be purified to meet the Bridegroom.They do not really trust God. They will not accept the Truth. They would rather hear lies. They would rather believe lies.